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Key Premisses

Here are the key premises I established at the start of my project:
  1. Node Amount: I want my cluster to have 3+ nodes—2 nodes just doesn’t feel “clustery” enough.
  2. Networking: I want to have a switch and a router so I can learn these two infrastructure pieces hands-on.
  3. Portability: I want my cluster to be portable and function identically both at home and at work.
  4. Looks: It needs to look cool.
  5. Learning Curve > Power: I prioritize beginner-friendly components over more computationally powerful ones.
This is my first attempt at “homelabbing.” While the initial premises I defined and choices I made might not have been the “perfect” path, I believe it’s better to get started than be stuck in a perpetual cycle of theory crafting.

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Purpose

The purpose of this build is to create a playground where I can learn and experiment with Kubernetes, ArgoCD, networking concepts like local DNS, hosting public and private services, self-hosted MLOps, and much more. While the projects don’t need to be at peak computational performance, the environment should provide an authentic experience of setting up enterprise-level tools—like deploying ArgoCD on a Kubernetes cluster.
Ultimately, I want an environment where I can explore and experiment freely.